Teams, Autonomy, and the Financial Performance of Firms

Excerpt] I estimate a structural model of teams, autonomy, and financial performance, using a cross section of British establishments. My findings suggest that team production improves financial performance for the typical establishment but that autonomous teams do no better than closely supervised or non-autonomous teams. I find that unobserved factors increasing the propensity to adopt teams are positively correlated with unobserved determinants of financial performance, and that unobserved factors increasing the propensity to grant teams autonomy are negatively correlated with unobserved determinants of financial performance when teams are adopted.